[MIJB#19]

General Manager Notes: Old Doug returns
But we lose out on a promising wide receiver.

Oh and we traded draft picks.

First things first. With Doug James still recovering from ACL knee surgery, we needed to sign a punter to cover for him for the first half to two third of the season. Old Doug Guynes returns for another season, we'll figure out the roster space technicalities later on.

We lost out on wide receiver Malachi Pierson. It turns out Malachi has become a very popular first name with football players, back in the day we had Malachi Pennell, the best punter ever to wear the orange-white-and-blue, until we selected Doug James, but we have no idea whether James will reach the heights Pennell. Did.
Pierson is a 32-year old wide receiver, promising kickoff returner. And he is one of several players that we found in the recycle bin of the IHOF. Several teams have been cutting off old but still good to consume meat, probably because they've got salary cap troubles. Yes, my staff members can't scout properly, so we can't rely on their player assessments, but with players this age, it's much less of an issue, it seems. Anyway, he took Colorado's 22.35M over our $15.5M offer, both over 2 years, rightfully so.

And then the trading part. We shipped our third round pick to the Gothenburg Giants and the pair of fourth round picks to the Atlanta Vipers. My list of suitable players ran out at the 2.16 pick. I do have an ace or two up my sleeve, I hope, but we'll gamble on landing them in the middle of the 5th and 7th rounds. There are currently 5 names on my list of players that we might like to see join us from training camp and could have a reasonable shot at making the 60 men pre-season roster. One of them specifically a player that my coordinator graded very lowly, while said player had a very strong combine showing. But let's stick to: we still have a consolation prizes list.

Returning to that recycle bin, we've found out that another team is also in the market for defensive end Caiden Croyle, quite possibly the top dog in the current free agent pool. We'll certainly try to outbid those Toronto Lake Monsters, albeit not at all cost. We do need a mentor for rookie Piotte, so that would be an added bonus.

We're also in the market for guard Desmond Pritchett, but he hasn't taken the bait yet. Neither has our backup center from last season, Aidan Doyle.

So much for now, more later. As always.